The East Village Experience Centre celebrates its third birthday.

Three years ago, the East Village Sales and Experience Centre opened. Come celebrate with us on Saturday and Sunday March 7 and 8, and get a taste (and a sip) of delicious things to come in EV.

Three years ago, in March 2012, a striking new building opened its doors in East Village. It was a thoroughly contemporary construction – with floor to ceiling windows and crisscrossing wooden pillars that stood out on RiverWalk™ – where its nearest neighbour, the Simmons Building, was a handsome brick centenarian.

The building, designed by renowned architect James Cheng, was the East Village Sales and Experience Centre, the place where the East Village story is told in its entirely, and where Calgarians finally got a three-dimensional idea of what the future of the neighbourhood could hold.

When the centre opened its doors amid much fanfare, thousands of curious locals discovered that it was home to a soaring Calder-esque mobile, 30-foot walls slathered in imagery that suggested EV’s future, a giant scale model of the finished neighbourhood, and full-size show suites of pioneering developers Embassy BOSA and FRAM+Slokker. As a new crew of EV ambassadors pointed out highlights, understanding of the scale of the project grew and the excitement was palpable.

In three short years, the Sales and Experience Centre – EVEC for short – has witnessed, and been an engine of, a revolution in East Village. Residential condominium projects Evolution, FIRST and Verve have been released to the Calgary market and will welcome residents this year; the infrastructure of East Village has been utterly transformed; two of the city’s pre-eminent cultural institutions – the New Central Library and National Music Centre – are under construction; the majority of land parcels have been sold to private developers; events of all kinds are now an integral part of EV life. And now, in 2015, the first new residents in a decade will be moving in.

Clearly, it’s time to celebrate.

There’ll be a birthday party at the East Village Sales and Experience Centre on Saturday and Sunday March 7 and 8 from 11 am to 1 pm both days. There’ll be free Phil & Sebastian coffee and goodies from Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, both of which, along with Charbar restaurant, will open permanently in the Simmons building in May 2015. Come to the EVEC to see how far we’ve come – and enjoy a delicious taste of the future.